Elisha
Fletchettes sparked off of the wall overhead as Elisha gathered up his lash, coiling it in his off hand while watching the doorway on the other side of his plinth out of the corner of his eye. The big enforcer holed up in there peeked out at him once. Twice. Elisha lifted the handle of his lash and readied a strike. The big guy was a nasty, nasty fighter and he had superior firepower to boot. Hammer knew he’d have to fight smarter than him if he was hoping to win this time around.
The big advantage he had was that his lash could wrap around corners where as the magnetic launchers that threw fletchettes out of a knifer fired in straight lines only. Problem was, recovering the lash after that kind of attack took a lot of time. Flushing the enforcer out was the better way to go. So he dug a smoke grenade out of his pocket, letting go of his lash’s coils, pulled the arming pin and tossed it through the door. Then he backpedaled, whipping his lash about to get some momentum behind it.
There were two possible reactions Elisha anticipated when he threw the grenade: That the other man would dash out of the room immediately to avoid the grenade or that he would hunker down behind cover. The heavy chose the former. In his place Elisha would have hunkered down, since it was unlikely a legal commercial interest would have high explosives in its security armory, but perhaps security measures were different on other planets. Regardless, the big man came out firing his weapon as he ran.
Elisha continued to back up, zigzagging randomly back and forth across the hallway as he flicked his lash out and triggered it. Etheric energy crackled down the length of the whip. The enforcer pulled off his hat and used it to smack the whip away with a hard metallic clunk. The energy in the whip sparked and spat, burning away the hat’s fabric in places to reveal the plates of metal that braced the brim and hat band. With his other hand the big man fired his knifer at Elisha. The fletchettes whizzed by far closer than he was comfortable with.
It was hard to keep count of how many shots were fired from a magnetic launcher like knifers or lancers used. There wasn’t a muzzle flash or a particularly loud bang. Elisha had to squint and try to catch sight of the fletchettes as they whipped past and he guessed there were three or four in the enforcer’s barrage. His weapon looked like a Spader HK-9, which had a twenty round magazine. Add in the two or three shots he’d already fired and Elisha estimated his opponent had fired a third of his ammunition.
Given how accurate he was, disarming the man seemed safer than trying to run him out of ammo. Elisha had backstepped past the plinth he was using as cover and as the enforcer came even with it the theiftaker flicked his whip out and snagged it in the branches of the small bonsai that sat on it. With a sharp yank he dragged the thing forward and through his opponent’s feet. The big man tripped but kept his footing. Elisha had expected no less.
He sent an etheric pulse through his lash at full power, burning through the plant’s branches and freeing the whip’s length for him to yank back to him. With a quick looping motion, using his free arm as a pulley point, he spun the weapon for another strike. His target was the bigger man’s weapon. Instead he wrapped the lash around the man’s arm.
A bit surprised at how accurate the strike was, Elisha hesitated before hitting the charge switch again. Long practice for nonlethal takedowns gave him the urge to turn down the weapon’s power before shocking his opponent but given the situation he wasn’t sure a stun charge would cut it. If his jacket was shielded it might not even slow him down and this heavy looked like the kind of professional face breaker to favor just that kind of outerwear. He paused just long enough for the other man to shoot through his lash.
It took three more fletchettes out of the enforcer’s knifer to sever the last fifty centimeters of Elisha’s weapon but that effectively eliminated the lash’s offensive capability. The ends of the etheric circuit that ran through it sparked at the frayed end of the whip. Without a complete, stable circuit to run through the weapon’s shock pulses wouldn’t work and Elisha was effectively left with a two and a half meter length of heavy cable with a handle.
Distance was a sudden liability so Elisha dashed forward, gathering up the length of the whip again, zigging then zagging to avoid the barrel of his opponent’s weapon. Fletchettes hissed out of the barrel, two striking home. One hit a rib and skidded off with a teeth rattling impact. The other punched through Elisha’s leg and he felt his body beginning to pitch forward. With a final push he dove into the ground and rolled through the other man’s legs, pitching him to the ground as well. In the ensuing scramble he wrapped the remains of his lash around his opponent’s feet in a sloppy knot.
The enforcer was tough, Elisha had to give him that. He hadn’t lost his weapon in the fall and he tried to bring it around to an angle that would let him fire it without hurting himself. Elisha’s hand fell on a metal circle and grabbed hold. He beat the knifer aside with the enforcer’s metal lined hat then whipped the bludgeon back and hit the bigger man in the face with it, knocking him back flat. The thieftaker straddled his chest and smashed the edge of the brim down on his head once, twice, three times.
The enforcer covered his head with both arms then rolled to the right and kicked out of the mount. Elisha wasn’t able to brace himself and stop the roll as his injured leg gave out. He rolled away from his opponent, howling through gritted teeth, and threw the hat at his opponent before lunging at him. The bigger man still had his arms over his face and his weapon was pointed to the ceiling so Elisha grabbed for it. It fired during the struggle and three more fletchettes flew from the barrel into the ceiling then the magazine let out a snapping noise. It was empty.
The enforcer let go of it and the sudden loss of resistance threw Elisha off balance. The bigger man took the opportunity to grab the collar of his jacket and throw him over onto the ground. The theiftaker landed with a grunt then screamed again as a heavy, booted foot stomped down on the wound in his leg once then stayed there. For a long moment Elisha just lay there, breathing heavily, and wondering if he was going to get shot or if the other man was out of weapons. Then the foot moved off his leg and a rasping voice asked, “Where’s the machine?”
“Machine?” Elisha rolled himself over with a pained grunt to look the big man in his glaring brown eyes. “The computer?”
The other man nodded, blood running down his face from cuts on his scalp left by the hat brim. “My client’s target.”
“Oh.” He let himself flop flat on the floor. “It’s in the sidereal. Building’s interdicted, we can’t get to it here.”
“It’s on that side of this building?” The enforcer asked, scooping his knifer up and slotting in a new magazine from a pocket.
“Dunno. They said something about moving it to our ship. But the building’s been locked down the whole time so maybe they haven’t done it yet.”
The big man took an oval device off of his belt and fiddled with something on it. A small red light on the exterior turned green and he frowned. “No, the only interdiction working here was mine. The building field must have been shut down at some point.”
Elisha watched him with a detached gaze as the enforcer searched his jacket pockets and took his remaining grenades, mobile comm and building key card. “Why a metal hat?”
The other man hesitated a moment, as if unsure whether he wanted to answer the question. “Why not? It’s surprising and often that’s all it takes.”
“True.”
“You’re surprising yourself. I wasn’t expecting such a hard fight on a backwater world like Wireburn.” He finished shoving Elisha’s stuff into his pockets and spared the thieftaker a respectful nod. “Tarn sel-Shran. If you ever need to bring in extra hands on a job send for me on Yshron. I wouldn’t mind being on the same side of things some time.”
“Elisha Hammer, Thieftaker’s Hall. I appreciate the thought buy I prefer to work alone.”
Tarn collected the remains of his hat and got to his feet. “Suit yourself. My client is waiting for me. There’s a first aid station one floor down, I’d make use of it if I were you. Either way, I’d say your part in this job’s over with.”
Elisha watched him walk off down the hall then he dragged himself over the wall and shoved himself back to his feet muttering, “The hell it is.”
Nate Chen Publications 